Cigarette Ads Under Fire : Surgeon General Wants R. J. Reynolds to Dump ‘Old Joe’ Cartoon Camel
The U.S. surgeon general on Monday strongly urged the maker of Camel cigarettes to voluntarily dump its “Old Joe” cartoon ads because of the campaign’s appeal to children.
“In years past, R. J. Reynolds would have us walk a mile for a Camel,” Surgeon General Antonia Novello said at a Washington press conference. “Today, it’s time that we invite ‘Old Joe’ camel to take a hike.”
Despite the urging--and an equally forceful request from the American Medical Assn.--the tobacco giant said that it has no plans to drop the highly successful campaign. And there wasno indication Monday that any publications would stop running the ads--which feature an illustration of a smirking camel witha cigarette dangling from its mouth.
“We have no reason to believe that this campaign is causing anyone to begin smoking,” said Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds. “If we thought it was causing young people to smoke, we’d pull it.”
It is extremely rare for government officials to single out specific cigarette brands and chastise their ads. The surgeon general does not have the authority to make companies change their advertising.
But marketing experts point out that, with a minority of Americans now smoking--and that number continuing to decline--it has become more politically acceptable to publicly criticize tobacco firms. And with increased consumer interest in health issues, groups that oppose smoking are generally becoming more powerful lobbying forces.
“The whole issue of smoking and health has more and more entered the political arena,” said Fred Danzig, editor of the trade publication Advertising Age.
On Monday, the surgeon general also asked billboard companies and publishers of newspapers and magazines to stop running the ads. But there was little indication the request would be heeded.
“With all due respect to the surgeon general’s opinion,” said Peter Costiglio, a spokesman for Time Inc. Magazines, which has run the ad in Sports Illustrated and People, “we are very committed to free speech in all of its various forms.”
Meanwhile, several consumer and health groups say they want the “Old Joe” campaign to end.
“Any industry that kills more than 435,000 of its best customers every year must find new customers,” said James S. Todd, executive vice president of the American Medical Assn.
“We think these are disgusting ads because they are so clearly directed toward children,” said Athena Mueller, executive director of the Washington, D.C-based Action on Smoking and Health. Of all cigarette ads, she said, “these are the most indecent of the lot.”
Advertising Age joined Reynolds’ critics in January when it called for the tobacco company to kill the “Old Joe” campaign. Reynolds “is courting disaster with these ads,” said an editorial in the publication. “The company has crossed the divider between its legal right to advertise and its unique social responsibility to the general public.”
In December, 1991, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. reported that 6-year-old children were almost as familiar with the “Old Joe” cartoon as with Mickey Mouse. That study, said Reynolds spokeswoman Payne, “has flaws large enough to drive a tractor through.”
Some say that politicization of the smoking issue kicked into gear two years ago when former Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan blasted Reynolds for a new brand, Uptown, that the company was test marketing to lower-income blacks. Sullivan called the campaign “slick and sinister.”
